PRESS RELEASE
14 March 2007
The Bolshoi Ballet returns to London for a three-week summer season at the London Coliseum from July 30 — August 18, 2007, presented by Victor Hochhauser.
Last year’s sold-out season of the Bolshoi Ballet in London was a critical triumph, and it left an enthusiastic public clamouring for more. At this year’s National Dance Awards the Bolshoi won the award for the Best Foreign Dance Company of 2006.
The company’s 2007 programme opens with a lavish new recreation of 19th century classic Le Corsaire by the Bolshoi’s Artistic Director Alexei Ratmansky working with ballet master/restorer Yuri Burlaka.
The role of Medora on the opening night is danced by the company’s leading dancer Svetlana Zakharova partnered by fiery Denis Matvienko, the Bolshoi’s Principal Guest Artist.
International superstar Carlos Acosta appears as a Guest Artist with the Bolshoi dancing the lead role in Yuri Grigorovich’s heroic Soviet-era ballet Spartacus- a work which has become synonymous with the Bolshoi name.
The season also includes the British Premiere of Elsinore, a new one-act ballet by the greatly admired British choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, in a triple bill with Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room, and Asaf Messerer’s Class Concert, a dazzling vehicle for the company’s leading soloists, and here revived by his nephew, UK based ballet master Mikhail Messerer.
Ratmansky’s rollicking full-length ballet, The Bright Stream, hailed as ’the best new ballet to come out of Russia in years’ and voted Best Classical Choreography of 2006 by the Critics’ Circle, returns by overwhelming popular demand.
There’s also a chance to savour two other pillars of the Bolshoi’s classical repertoire — La Bayadere and Don Quixote whose opening night cast features remarkable 21 year-old Natalia Osipova. Osipova’s exuberant performance as Kitri in last year’s London season was unforgettable. This season she dances opposite the prodigiously gifted 18 year-old Ivan Vasiliev, who joined the company only last year — and is widely being compared to the young Baryshnikov.
All the Bolshoi’s finest Principal Artists will dance during the Coliseum season including Maria Alexandrova, Maria Allash, Anna Antonicheva, Sergei Filin, Dmitri Gudanov, Svetlana Lunkina, Vladimir Neporozhny, Marianna Ryzhkina, Galina Stepanenko, Nikolai Tsiskaridze and Andrei Uvarov.
Other soloists of the younger generation include Yan Godovsky, Nina Kaptsova, Yekaterina Krysanova, Andrei Merkuriev, Yekaterina Shipulina, Artyom Shpilevksy, Ruslan Skvortsov, Alexander Volchkov and Anastasia Yatsenko.
Victor Hochhauser and the Bolshoi look forward to renewing their association with the London Coliseum, where the company last performed in 1999. Since then the theatre has been handsomely restored. It will offer a fitting frame for one of the world’s leading ballet companies.
Victor and Lilian Hochhauser have been associated with the best of Russian culture for over 50 years. Last autumn their unique role as cultural ambassadors was recognised by the Russian Government with the award of a special medal for promoting a positive image of Russian culture in the Britain.
THE BOLSHOI BALLET at the London Coliseum
July 30 — August 18, 2007
Schedule of performances
CASTING AS AT 12/07/07
(Casting may be subject to change.)
P — Press Night
Le Corsaire
July 30 (P)
Medora — Svetlana Zakharova
Conrad — Denis Matvienko
Gulnare — Yekaterina Shipulina
Birbanto — Andrei Merkuriev
Pas des esclaves — Nina Kaptsova , Ivan Vasiliev
Lanquedem — Gennadi Yanin
Seyd, the Pacha — Alexei Loparevich
July 31, 7.30 pm
Medora — Maria Alexandrova
Conrad — Nikolai Tsiskaridze
Gulnare — Anastasia Yatsenko
Birbanto — Vitaly Biktimirov
Pas des esclaves — Nina Kaptsova , Ivan Vasiliev
Lanquedem — Gennadi Yanin
Seyd, the Pacha — Alexei Loparevich
August 1, 7.30 pm
Medora — Svetlana Lunkina
Conrad — Sergei Filin
Gulnare — Yekaterina Krysanova
Birbanto — Andrei Merkuriev
Pas des esclaves — Anastasia Stashkevich, Denis Medvedev
Lanquedem — Gennadi Yanin
Seyd, the Pacha — Alexei Loparevich
August 15, 2 pm
Medora — Svetlana Lunkina
Conrad — Sergei Filin
Gulnare — Marianna Ryzhkina
Birbanto — Andrei Merkuriev
Pas des esclaves — Anastasia Stashkevich, Andrei Bolotin
Lanquedem — Gennadi Yanin
Seyd, the Pacha — Alexei Loparevich
August 15, 7.30 pm
Medora — Svetlana Zakharova
Conrad — Denis Matvienko
Gulnare — Yekaterina Shipulina
Birbanto — Vitaly Biktimirov
Pas des esclaves — Nina Kaptsova , Ivan Vasiliev
Lanquedem — Gennadi Yanin
Seyd, the Pacha — Alexei Loparevich
La Bayadere
August 2 (P)
Nikia — Svetlana Zakharova
Solor — Nikolai Tsiskaridze
Gamzatti — Maria Alexandrova
August 3
Nikia — Svetlana Lunkina
Solor — Denis Matvienko
Gamzatti — Natalia Osipova
August 4, 2.30 pm
Nikia — Anna Antonicheva
Solor — Vladimir Neporozhny
Gamzatti — Yekaterina Shipulina
August 4, 7.30 pm
Nikia — Maria Allash
Solor — Nikolai Tsiskaridze
Gamzatti — Maria Alexandrova
Spartacus
August 6 (P)
Spartacus — Carlos Acosta
Crassus — Alexander Volchkov
Phrigia — Anna Antonicheva
Aegina — Maria Allash
August 7
Spartacus — Denis Matvienko
Crassus — Vladimir Neporozhny
Phrigia — Svetlana Lunkina
Aegina — Maria Alexandrova
August 8
Spartacus — Carlos Acosta
Crassus — Alexander Volchkov
Phrigia — Anna Antonicheva
Aegina — Yekaterina Shipulina
Don Quixote
August 9 (P)
Kitri — Natalia Osipova
Basilio — Ivan Vasiliev
A street dancer — Anastasia Yatsenko
The Queen of the Dryads — Yekaterina Shipulina
Don Quixote
August 10
Kitri — Maria Alexandrova
Basilio — Sergei Filin
A street dancer — Anastasia Yatsenko
The Queen of the Dryads — Maria Allash
August 11, 2 pm
Kitri — Natalia Osipova
Basilio — Ivan Vasiliev
A street dancer — Anastasia Yatsenko
The Queen of the Dryads — Yekaterina Shipulina
August 11, 7.30 pm
Kitri — Svetlana Zakharova
Basilio — Denis Matvienko
A street dancer — Anastasia Yatsenko
The Queen of the Dryads — Maria Allash
Triple Bill
August 13 (P),
August 14
Class Concert
Svetlana Zakharova, Maria Alexandrova, Maria Allash, Anna Antonicheva,
Svetlana Lunkina, Marianna Ryzhkina, Nina Kaptsova, Yekaterina Shipulina,
Yekaterina Krysanova, Anna Leonova, Anna Nikulina, Natalia Osipova,
Alesya Boyko, Yulia Lunkina,Chinara Alizade, Anna Tikhomirova;
Dmitri Gudanov, Denis Matvienko, Vladimir Neporozhny, Sergei Filin, Alexander Volchkov,
Andrei Merkuriev, Ruslan Skvortsov, Artem Shpilevsky, Andrei Bolotin, Denis Medvedev,
Ivan Vasiliev and others
Elsinore
Dmitri Gudanov,
Svetlana Lunkina, Maria Alexandrova, Anastasia Yatsenko, Anna Rebetskaya,
Ruslan Skvortsov, Yegor Khromushin, Vyacheslav Lopatin, Yan Godovsky
In the Upper Room
Marianna Ryzhkina, Yekaterina Shipulina, Yekaterina Krysanova, Anna Tikhomirova,
Natalia Osipova, Anna Nikulina, Nuria Nagimova,
Andrei Merkuriev, Yan Godovsky, Denis Medvedev, Denis Savin,
Anton Savichev, Alexander Smoliyanivov
The Bright Stream
August 16 (P)
Zina — Yekaterina Krysanova
Pyotr — Andrei Merkuriev
Balerina — Natalia Osipova
Ballet Dancer — Sergei Filin
August 17
Zina — Anastasia Yatsenko
Pyotr — Vladimir Neporozhny
Balerina — Yekaterina Shipulina
Ballet Dancer — Ruslan Skvortsov
August 18, 2.30 pm
Zina — Nina Kaptsova
Pyotr — Andrei Merkuriev
Balerina — Natalia Osipova
Ballet Dancer — Yan Godovsky
August 18, 7.30 pm
Zina — Svetlana Lunkina
Pyotr — Vladimir Neporozhny
Balerina — Maria Alexandrova
Ballet Dancer — Sergei Filin
PUBLIC AND ONLINE BOOKING FOR THE SEASON OPENS ON MONDAY, MARCH 26.
The Bolshoi Ballet at The London Coliseum
St. Martin’s Lane, London WC2
Monday, July 30 — Saturday, August 18, 2007
Box Office Tel: 0870 145 0200
Online booking: www.eno.org/bolshoi
www.victorhochhauser.co.uk
Ticket prices: Ј10 — Ј85
Press contact: Faith WIilson Arts Publicity
Tel: 0207 403 8240 m: 0794 113 7453
e-mail: faith@faithwilson.demon.co.uk
Art. Lebedev Studio